The Harry Factor
by Writing Cramp
Summary: It was Harry's presence that initially brought Ginny and Cho together, but it was ironically also Harry that inadvertently tried to push them apart... (f/f slash)


The Harry Factor  


  
It was Harry's presence that initially brought Ginny and Cho together, but it was ironically also Harry that inadvertently tried to push them apart...  
  
WARNING: This is femslash or f/f slash. It features a relationship between two female characters, in this case Ginny Weasley and Cho Chang. You have been warned!  
  
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As I quietly filed into the auditorium to watch Cho's graduation, I heard an exasperated voice calling, "Ginny, Ginny!" I turned around, and there he was. The great Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, was following me, his eyes, red and puffy. I knew why, of course, but he couldn't know that.  
  
"Hey, Harry," I said, gamely smiling and doing my best to appear happy to see him. "Here to watch Cho graduate? Are you okay?" I asked with concern.  
  
"She- she broke up with me last night!" Harry said, his voice cracking as he tried to hold back his sobs. "I don't understand!"  
  
"I'm sorry, Harry," I said, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. What he didn't know is that I already knew she had done so. "Are you sure you want to watch her graduate?" I asked gently.  
  
"Yes, Gin, since you are. I need to talk to you."  
  
_Oh no,_ I thought. Talking to him was that last think I wanted to do. "Why not Ron and Hermione? They're your best friends," I said innocently.  
  
"Ginny, you've been one of her closest friends all year. I have to talk to you. I need answers." His tone was so final that I didn't dare to refuse.  
  
"Okay, Harry, I'll talk to you," I said, plastering a smile on my face as we sat down together. "I'll do my best to help you."  
  
My heart filled with guilt as I realized that all I would be able to tell Harry was lies. He couldn't know about Cho and me...no, not yet. It was too soon for the world to know. I would lose many dear friends, and I shuddered to think of what my reputation would become if people knew I'd been cheating with Harry's girlfriend for the past year. But in a way, I rationalized, I never would have met Cho if it weren't for Harry. After all, she became his girlfriend at the beginning of the year...  
  
_"What do you mean Harry is dating Cho?" I asked Ron, stomping my feet in disbelief.  
  
"Ginny, he's had a crush on her for ages. Their feelings are apparently mutual."  
  
"But Ron...what about me?" I whined immaturely.  
  
Ron shrugged. "I know you have a crush on him. But Ginny, he just doesn't like you in that way. He likes Cho."  
  
"Well, that does it! I'm going to follow him around! Wherever he goes with Cho, I go too! He'll realize the mistake he made!"  
  
"All right Ginny, whatever you say..." he trailed off, his interests clearly elsewhere.  
  
"You won't tell Harry, will you?" I asked, giving him an oh-so-sweet smile.  
  
"Don't worry." For the next two months, I became Harry and Cho's silent shadow. I learned about their dates in advance and even bribed Lavender and Parvati for their secret kissing zones. But I don't think Harry ever even noticed my presence..._  
  
The graduation began. Pomp and Circumstance filled the air. As class valedictorian, Cho was third in the procession, right behind the Head Boy and Head Girl. She scanned the room and quickly located me sitting next to Harry. Cho smiled delicately at us, winking at me. I smiled back as Harry buried his face in my shoulder.  
  
"Why, Ginny, Why?" He cried softly into my ear.  
  
I put his arm around him and attempted to wipe his eyes. "I don't know..." I whispered, my voice trailing off...  
  
_One day, after a couple months of my sneaking, I watched quietly at Harry kissed Cho good-bye just outside the Ravenclaw dorms. To my surprise, she did not immediately enter. Instead, she waited for Harry to leave and then walked up to me.  
  
"Hello there," she said, giving me a friendly smile.  
  
"H-hi," I stammered. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't...I didn't mean to w-watch..."  
  
"It's all right," she said, laughing gently. "I've been noticing you around Harry and me lately."  
  
Well, so much for being the stealthy stalker. "Yeah..." I said, not knowing what else to say.  
  
"You're Ron's little sister, aren't you?" she said, eyeing me intently.  
  
"That's me, all right!" I giggled, delighted to be recognized.  
  
She laughed back. "I figured, with your red hair." She stretched her hand out. "Cho Chang."  
  
I shook it. "Ginny Weasley."  
  
She paused. "So, Ginny, you seem like a very nice girl. I thought maybe you'd like to spend some time with me...maybe tomorrow?"  
  
My eyes lit up, delighted someone wanted to be my friend. "Sure! Right here, same time?"  
  
"Of course," she said. We then said our good-byes, and I temporarily forgot about Harry. At the time, it didn't occur to me to realize that a typical girl would never invite the girl clearly chasing after her boyfriend to spend time with her. But at the time, I never even noticed...  
  
_The graduating class lined up for the typically cheesy song the graduates always sang. Naturally, Harry and I paid no attention. Cho didn't have a particularly beautiful voice, anyway. Harry saw this is the perfect time to talk to me.  
  
"Did Cho give you any indication she might break up with me?" Harry asked.  
  
I gritted me teeth. "No, not directly," I said with poise. I had become a good liar over the year.  
  
"Not directly?" Harry said, repeating my words. "Well, what happened?"  
  
"Well, um..." I paused a second, trying to think of something convincing. "Um, Cho was talking about how she wanted to head to the University of Magic with a fresh new start. No ties to the past, you know what I mean?"  
  
"Oh..." Harry said quietly. "I guess- I guess I can understand that."  
  
I tightened my grip on him again, glad he had accepted the excuse. "I just thought we were going to be together forever," he stammered again. "And..." I know Harry was planning to say something more, but the graduation song stopped...  
  
_As the months went by, Cho and I continued to spend more time together. I was thrilled an older girl had taken an interest in me and genuinely cared about me as a person. For the first time ever, I had a close female friend.  
  
"So, who are your other friends?" I remember Cho asking me early on.  
  
"Oh, well, my closest friend is Colin Creevy. I also spend some time with guys my brother's age, like Neville and Dean. But..." I stopped talking.  
  
"But what?" she asked, motioning me to continue.  
  
"I've always wanted a friend that's a girl," I finished sadly.  
  
"Well, what about Hermione?" Cho asked casually. "She seems like a nice girl."  
  
"Hermione is nice, but she's my brother's friend, not my friend," I replied. "It seems like all the girls are either smart and only study like Hermione or dumb and only put on makeup- like Lavender. I want to do girly activities with someone intelligent."  
  
"Yes, I know exactly how you feel!" Cho said grinning.  
  
"...And that's exactly why we're friends," I finished off, and we burst into giggles together.  
  
In our time together that year, I grew in maturity. I stopped being Ron's goofy little sister with the crush on Harry and finally grew into my own person. I slowly stopped following Harry and Cho around on dates, and my crush on Harry fizzled. At first, I made little note of this.  
  
And then, one day it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was falling in love with Cho. She was beautiful, intelligent, witty, and charming- everything I'd ever wanted in a life partner. But Cho was still dating Harry. I was frightened, not only to have a crush on a girl, but one that was supposed to be my best friend. I made the decision to keep it quiet.  
  
Then one day, at the end of the fourth year, Cho and I were talking together in a private area, and the topic of Harry came up. "Oh, Gin..." she said, "going out with Harry isn't like it used to be."  
  
On the inside, my heart was jumping for joy. "Why not?" I asked with a concerned voice.  
  
"Oh, he's the same old Harry," she said. "It's not him. It's me."  
  
"What about you, Cho? You're a wonderful person...incredible," I breathed.  
  
"Ginny, I'm the older one here, and I've kept a terrible secret from you. I suppose I should finally kiss and tell."  
  
My heart began to pound. "What is it, Cho?"  
  
"I can't believe I'm saying this..." she trailed off. "But Ginny, I've lose interest in Harry because I'm falling for you."  
  
I froze in shock, not believing what I'd just heard.  
  
Cho took my shock the wrong way. "Ginny, if you want to stop being friends with me now, I completely understand."  
  
I found my voice. "No, no, Cho! I'm reacting like this because I feel the same way about you! You're the most amazing person I've ever met."  
  
Then it was Cho's turn to look at me in shock. "Ginny, I...wow."  
  
"I guess there's only one thing we can do now," I said, smiling coyly.  
  
She laughed, and we ended our school year together taking the phrase 'kiss and tell' very literally, and we vowed, at least for the summer, not to tell...  
_  
After the singing ceremony came the magic demonstration. The students went in a preselected order, which appeared to start with the lowest level magicians. Harry and I watched the first student cast an extraordinarily weak transfiguration spell that turned the block of wood into a block of wood with frog legs.  
  
I turned to Harry and laughed. "He's almost worse than Neville!" I whispered to him, in an attempt to cheer him up. For the first time in the entire ceremony, I saw Harry crack a smile.  
  
"She's even worse!" Harry whispered back as the next girl cast a lumos spell weaker than most first years. As we watched the students perform the tricks, Harry and I laughed at them, and oohed and ahhhed at the better tricks. Harry finally seemed to perk up.  
  
Then Cho came along, and performed the most complex magic spell I had ever seen in my life. I clapped and cheered with the rest of the crowd, but Harry's face fell again. "And that's what I lost, " he muttered to me. "A beautiful and talented woman."  
  
"I know, Harry, I know." The magic demonstration ended, and I looked at the upset Harry again, this time in a different light. As I delved further into my relationship with Cho, I began to see not a just a man who had allowed us to meet, but one who had unknowingly blocked our relationship. I looked at him, feeling almost angry at the power he unknowingly had...  
  
_The next year, Cho and I met early on to discuss our relationship. "Cho, please, break up with Harry," I pleaded. "I want the whole world to know how much I love you."  
  
Cho sighed regretfully. "Ginny, I wish I could break up with him. I really wish I could."  
  
"Why not?" I asked, my trademark whiny voice coming back.  
  
"I've thought about it over the summer," Cho replied. "Ginny, think of how terrible it would look if we revealed our relationship."  
  
"What would happen, Cho?" I asked, truly clueless.  
  
"I'm not just dating anyone. I'm dating Harry Potter, the most popular wizard at Hogwarts. If I left him for another guy, I'd be a slut and a ho. If I left him for a girl, I'd be labeled a stupid lesbian to top it off. And you, Ginny, you would be similarly labeled."  
  
I took a moment to take all the information in. "You're right Cho," I said. "That Harry. What will we do this year?"  
  
"In public, we can continue to remain close friends," said Cho rationally. "We'll just have to keep the romantic aspects under wraps. And I'll keep dating Harry for the time being."  
  
"Okay..." I said slowly. "It'll be tough."  
  
"Yes, it will," Cho affirmed.  
  
"Do you think we'll make it?" I asked, undoubtedly sounding frightened. Cho walked up to me, giving me a passionate kiss on the lips and proving that it would work out. The Boy Who Lived wasn't going to keep us apart...  
  
_The procession finally began. We watched the graduating class take their magic diplomas from Dumbledore as he shook their hand. Cho came fairly early in the order. I, of course, cheered for every graduate.  
  
As Cho walked to the stage, I turned to Harry. "Put on a game face, Harry! Cheer for Cho!" I whispered loudly.  
  
"Okay, Gin, but just for you." As she walked the stage, Harry and I cheered louder than ever and called out Cho's name. Cho smiled at us and blew a kiss at me. Harry, of course, thought the kiss was for him.  
  
"Do you think she means she wants to get back with me?" Harry asked me hopefully.  
  
I sighed. "No, Harry, I don't. I think she's telling you not to take it personally. She still like you. She just wants to move on with life."  
  
"You think so?" Harry asked.  
  
"I know so," I answered with finality, gritting my teeth once again. And then came the speeches by the Head Boy and Head Girl, two students I didn't know. I paid no attention to their speeches, and I instead thought of the conversation I'd had with Cho a few nights ago...  
  
_For the rest of the year, everything went as planned. We publicly became close friends, and needless to say, Harry was thrilled because it appeared to be taking my attention away from him. The sneaking was difficult, and it caused some problems between us. If we could've come clean, we probably would have progressed further.  
  
But somehow, we managed to stick it out. One year later, Cho and I were still in love. And with Cho's graduation night just nights away, we needed to talk. We went into Cho's dorm room and had a discussion- well, after a little kissing, that is.  
  
"Cho, do you think it's time for us to reveal our relationship?" I asked. "With you graduating and all..."  
  
"NO." The voice was so loud and strong, I practically flinched.  
  
"What's wrong this time?" I asked her. I'd learned over the past year that as the older one, she usually had better judgment.  
  
"Ginny, can you imagine the scandal that would be involved if people knew about our little affair? It would be even worse than coming out a year ago."  
  
"Wou-would they still say those awful names about us?" I asked.  
  
"Yes, and worse," Cho replied, hugging me.  
  
"You're not going to stay with Harry, are you?" I asked nervously.  
  
"Definitely not," she replied. I stopped holding my breath, relieved. "I'll break up with him just before graduation."  
  
"Ah, good," I said with a smile. "Will you come back to Hogwarts and see me?" I asked.  
  
"Oh, definitely," she said. "I couldn't go very long without seeing my red haired girlfriend."  
  
I gave her a hug. "I love you very much Cho."  
  
She hugged back. "Yes, yes, Ginny. And, you know, I have a place of my own. Do you think you would like to spend some time with me this summer?"  
  
"Hmm..." I muttered. "Well, I guess that would be all right. My parents think we're close friends, after all."  
  
"Great!" She replied excitedly. "And, Ginny, maybe we can reveal our relationship in a couple of years. It just has to have been long enough that people won't realize we were together while I was dating Harry."  
  
I breathed in the scent of her hair. "Sounds all right. I just wish...Oh, if it weren't for that Harry- oh, we could be so happy..."  
  
"I know," she said, hushing me. "But we'll make the best of it." We ended our discussion on those terms.  
  
_"And now, presenting the new Hogwarts' graduates!" Dumbledore yelled. I smiled and waved at the happy graduates, and Harry did the same. I stared at Cho, who looked positively radiant in her white gown.  
  
"Go on your own now, and be contributors to the wizard world!" said Dumbledore. Those were the final words of the ceremony, and music started to play, indicating that it was time to leave.  
  
I saw Cho leave, but I didn't follow her. Right now, I still had Harry to tend to. I held his hand as we walked silently outside together. "Thanks Ginny," said Harry gratefully, once we were outside. "I feel much better now."  
  
"I'm glad, Harry," I said. For the first time, my smile toward him was genuine.  
  
"I guess- I guess it just wasn't meant to be," he said, a little sadness drifting back into his voice.  
  
"Don't worry," I said to Harry. "You'll find someone you love even more. Maybe your true love is right by your side."  
  
"Maybe she is..." he drifted, clearly thinking about other female Hogwarts' students.  
  
"Good luck, Harry," I said, giving him a clearly platonic kiss on the forehead. He smiled at me, and I smiled back. We then parted, ready to go our separate ways.  
  
Oh, Harry, Harry, what an odd one you've been. You were the glue that pulled me to Cho, yet you were the one who pulled us apart. I don't know whether I should thank you or slap you. But since your actions were inadvertent, I stick with nothing and watch you move away.  
  
After all, the time came. Cho made her choice, and the choice was me. I'm sorry, Harry, that I did this to you. I'm the guilty party here, who ripped away the girl you loved. But I watch you now and see you as more complete, more whole without Cho by your side. Perhaps breaking you two up was my favor to you so you could find the girl you truly loved.  
  
Good luck, Harry, with whatever you do. Meanwhile, it's time for me to move on. I need to kiss Cho good-bye, before she leaves Hogwarts for good.  
  
THE END  
  
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Notes: This was my first true slash fic ever, m/m or f/f. I decided to do some f/f, simply because m/m slash seems to be a dime a dozen in the HP section. Harry Potter femslash is difficult to write, mainly because there are very few female characters, and the female characters don't really interact with each other. The hardest part about writing this fic was coming up with a scenario for Cho and Ginny to meet and make a romance plausible. I hope, by all you readers' standards, I was successful.


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